Head of IT Strategy & Delivery Excellence

Job Description

Job Description

AVI Foodsystems is looking for an energetic and optimistic team member to fill the role of Head of IT Strategy & Delivery Excellence.

Founded in 1960, AVI Foodsystems has evolved into one of the most respected and trusted food service companies in the nation. Providing comprehensive food services with a focus on the highest quality and freshest ingredients, impeccable service and total value is the reputation we have earned and live up to everyday.

Reports to: Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Direct Reports: 1 (Initial) scaling to 6+ (Strategic Growth)

The Mission

As the Head of IT Strategy & Delivery Excellence, you serve as the "COO of IT" and the CIO’s primary strategic partner. Your mission is to transition the organization from a traditional, process-heavy PMO to a high-velocity Value Management Office (VMO) . This is a Player-Coach role: you will personally lead high-stakes strategic initiatives while building a lean, world-class team that treats IT as a value-driver, not a cost center.

Modernized Value Management (The VMO)

• Outcome-Led Governance: Replace "heavy" PMO checklists with automated governance. Focus on Value Velocity—the speed at which an idea becomes a business result.

• Investment & FinOps: Act as the "CFO of IT," managing the CapEx/OpEx budget and implementing FinOps to optimize cloud spend and TCO transparency.

• Strategic Intake: Implement a "Value-First" prioritization framework to ensure the enterprise focuses on the best initiatives.

• M&A & Transformation: Personally lead the IT integration playbook for new acquisitions, ensuring rapid time-to-value for the ownership group.

II. Agile Delivery & The "Light" PMO

• Adaptive Delivery: Design a "Lean-Agile" framework where Project Managers act as?Enablers, not "Taskmasters."

• Organizational Change Management (OCM): Lead the human side of digital transformation, ensuring user adoption is measured as a key project success metric.

• Self-Service Enablement: Build "Project Kits" that allow business units to run smaller initiatives without heavy IT oversight, keeping the central team lean.

III. Business Relationship & Workforce Strategy

• Strategic BRM: Act as the primary partner to the CFO, COO, and Sales VPs to co-author their long term digital roadmaps.

• IT Digital Branding: Own the "Story of IT." Use intentional internal communications to market IT’s successes and value to the board and ownership.

• Workforce Evolution: Design the talent roadmap to upskill the organization in AI, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

The "1-to-Many" Team Evolution

This role follows a phased growth model, allowing the leader to establish credibility as a Player-Coach before scaling the organization.

Phase 1: Foundation (The Player-Coach)

• The Focus: Personal leadership of the enterprise’s top 2–3 strategic initiatives.

• The Goal: Stand up the "Business of IT" framework (Intake, ROI Tracking, and FinOps) and establish a "Light PMO" culture.

Phase 2: Scale (The Strategic Core)

• The Hire: Add a Value Analyst (IT Finance/ROI) and a Delivery Orchestrator?(Agile/OCM).

• The Goal: Offload tactical execution to focus on long-term IT Strategy and M&A integration playbooks.

Phase 3: Maturity (The Strategic Partner)

• The Hire: Expand to include Business Relationship Managers (BRMs) and Technical Writers/Change Specialists.

• The Goal: Full integration of IT into every business unit, shifting the team from "executors" to "strategic consultants."

The Ideal Profile

• Experience: 3+ years in IT leadership or Management Consulting. You have seen "Big Tech" scale but prefer the agility of a privately owned environment.

• The Player-Coach DNA : You are just as comfortable building a 3-year financial model in Excel as you are presenting a transformation roadmap to the Board.

• Modern SDLC Knowledge: You advocate for DevOps and Product-centric delivery over "Waterfall" status reporting.

• Influence: Ability to push back on the C-Suite with data-driven insights while maintaining high-trust relationships.

Benefits:

• A family culture and atmosphere
• Competitive compensation
• Health, dental, vision, and life insurance for full-time team members
• 401(k) with generous company match
• Paid vacations and holidays
• Immense training and growth opportunities

We conduct pre-employment drug testing. EOE

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